African Pygmies

{{Short description|Group of ethnicities native to Central Africa}} {{For|short-statured peoples in general|Pygmy peoples}} {{use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Redirect|African Pygmy|the goat breed|American Pygmy}}

[[File:Pygmy languages (Bahuchet).png|thumb|upright=1.3|A map showing the distribution of Congo Pygmies and their languages according to Bahuchet (2006). The southern [[Twa]] are not shown.]] [[File:Baka dancers June 2006.jpg|thumb|[[Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon)|Baka]] dancers in the [[East Region (Cameroon)|East Province]] of [[Cameroon]] (2006)]] [[File:BaAka woman with baby.jpg|thumb|[[Aka people|Aka]] mother and child, [[Central African Republic]] (2014)]]

The '''African Pygmies''' (or '''Congo Pygmies''', variously also '''Central African foragers''', '''African rainforest hunter-gatherers''' (RHG) or '''Forest People of Central Africa'''){{efn|name=euphemisms}} are a group of ethnicities [[Indigenous peoples of Africa|native]] to [[Central Africa]], mostly the [[Congo Basin]], traditionally subsisting on a [[foraging|forager]] and [[hunter-gatherer]] lifestyle. They are divided into three roughly geographic groups:

*The western ''Bambenga'', or ''Mbenga'' ([[Cameroon]], [[Gabon]], [[Republic of the Congo]], [[Central African Republic]]), *the eastern ''[[Bambuti]]'', or ''Mbuti'', of the [[Congo Basin]] ([[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DRC]]) *the central and southern ''[[Batwa]]'', or ''Twa'' ([[Rwanda]], [[Burundi]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DRC]], [[Tanzania]], [[Uganda]], [[Zambia]], [[Angola]] and [[Namibia]]). The more widely scattered (and more variable in physiology and lifestyle) [[Southern Twa]] are also grouped under the term '''Pygmoid'''.

They are notable for, and named for, their [[short stature]] (described as "[[pygmyism]]" in anthropological literature). They are assumed to be descended from the original [[Middle Stone Age]] expansion of [[anatomically modern human]]s to Central Africa, albeit substantially affected by later migrations from West Africa, from their first appearance in the historical record in the 19th century limited to a comparatively small area within Central Africa, greatly decimated by the prehistoric [[Bantu expansion]], and to the present time widely affected by [[Slavery in Africa|enslavement]] at the hands of neighboring [[Bantu people|Bantu]], [[Ubangian]] and [[Central Sudanic]] groups.<ref name="slavery"/>

Most contemporary Pygmy groups partially forage and partially trade with neighboring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and material items; no group lives deep in the forest without access to agricultural products.<ref name="focus"/> A total number of about 900,000 Pygmies were estimated to be living in the central African forests in 2016, about 60% of this number in the [[Democratic Republic of Congo]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0144499 |pmid=26735953 |pmc=4711706 |title=Distribution and Numbers of Pygmies in Central African Forests |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=11 |issue=1 |article-number=e0144499 |year=2016 |last1=Olivero |first1=Jesús |last2=Fa |first2=John E |last3=Farfán |first3=Miguel A |last4=Lewis |first4=Jerome |last5=Hewlett |first5=Barry |last6=Breuer |first6=Thomas |last7=Carpaneto |first7=Giuseppe M |last8=Fernández |first8=María |last9=Germi |first9=Francesco |last10=Hattori |first10=Shiho |last11=Head |first11=Josephine |last12=Ichikawa |first12=Mitsuo |last13=Kitanaishi |first13=Koichi |last14=Knights |first14=Jessica |last15=Matsuura |first15=Naoki |last16=Migliano |first16=Andrea |last17=Nese |first17=Barbara |last18=Noss |first18=Andrew |last19=Ekoumou |first19=Dieudonné Ongbwa |last20=Paulin |first20=Pascale |last21=Real |first21=Raimundo |last22=Riddell |first22=Mike |last23=Stevenson |first23=Edward G. J |last24=Toda |first24=Mikako |last25=Vargas |first25=J. Mario |last26=Yasuoka |first26=Hirokazu |last27=Nasi |first27=Robert |bibcode=2016PLoSO..1144499O |doi-access=free }}</ref> The number does not include [[Southern Twa]] populations, who live outside of the Central Africa forest environment, partly in open swamp or desert environments.

Additionally, [[West African hunter-gatherers]] may have dwelled in western [[Central Africa]] earlier than 32,000 BP and dwelled in [[West Africa]] between 16,000 BP and 12,000 BP until as late as 1000 BP or some period of time after 1500 CE.<ref name="MacDonald II" /><ref name="MacDonald" /><ref name="Scerri">{{cite journal |last1=Scerri |first1=Eleanor M. L. |title=Continuity of the Middle Stone Age into the Holocene |journal=Scientific Reports |year=2021 |volume=11 |issue=1 |article-number=70 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-79418-4 |pmid=33431997 |pmc=7801626 |s2cid=231583475}}</ref><ref name="Van Beek">{{cite book |last1=Van Beek |first1=Walter E.A. |last2=Banga |first2=Pieteke M. |title=The Dogon and their trees |date=March 11, 2002 |publisher=Routledge |page=66 |isbn=978-1-134-91956-7 |doi=10.4324/9780203036129-10 |doi-broken-date=30 January 2026 |s2cid=126989016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppuKAgAAQBAJ&q=%22Tellem%22+%22Dogon%22&pg=PA57}}</ref> West African hunter-gatherers, many of whom dwelt in the [[Guinean forest–savanna mosaic|forest–savanna]] region, were ultimately acculturated and admixed into larger groups of West African agriculturalists, akin to the migratory [[Bantu peoples|Bantu-speaking agriculturalists]] and their [[Bantu expansion#Central Africa|encounters]] with Central African hunter-gatherers.<ref name="MacDonald II" />

== Name{{anchor|Names}} == [[File:Pygmy people, Belgian Congo.jpg|thumb|upright|Congo Pygmy father and son (''Belgian Congo at War'', 1942)]] [[File:African Pigmies CNE-v1-p58-B.jpg|thumb|upright|Pygmy family posing with a European man for scale (''Collier's New Encyclopedia'', 1921)]] [[File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18162268531).jpg|thumb|A group of Pygmy men from Nala ([[Haut-Uele]], northeastern Congo) posing with bows and arrows ({{Circa|1915}})]]

The term ''[[Pygmy]]'', as used to refer to diminutive people, derives from [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] [[Pygmy (Greek mythology)|πυγμαῖος]] {{Lang|grc-Latn|pygmaios}} (via [[Latin]] {{Lang|la|Pygmaeus}}, plural {{Lang|la|Pygmaei}}), a term for "dwarf" from [[Greek mythology]]. The word is derived from {{Lang|grc|πυγμή}} {{Lang|grc-Latn|pygmē}}, a term for "[[cubit]]" ({{lit|fist}}), suggesting a diminutive height.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pygmy pygmy]. Online Etymology Dictionary.</ref>

The use of "Pygmy" in reference to the small-framed African hunter-gatherers dates to the early 19th century, in English first by John Barrow, ''Travels Into the Interior of Southern Africa'' (1806). However, the term was used diffusely, and treated as unsubstantiated claims of "dwarf tribes" among the [[Bushmen]] of the interior of Africa, until the [[exploration of the Congo basin]]. In the 1860s, two Western explorers, [[Paul Du Chaillu]] and [[Georg Schweinfurth]], claimed to have found the mythical "Pygmies". A commentator wrote in 1892 that, thirty years ago (viz., in the 1860s), "nobody believed in the existence of African dwarf tribes" and that "it needed an authority like Dr. Schweinfurth to prove that pygmies actually exist in Africa" (referencing Georg August Schweinfurth's ''The Heart of Africa'', published 1873).<ref>Schlichter, Henry. 1892. [http://web.cc.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp/~kitanisi/pygmy_doc/article/Schlichter92.html "The Pygmy tribes of Africa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220708133006/http://web.cc.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp/~kitanisi/pygmy_doc/article/Schlichter92.html |date=2022-07-08}}, ''The Scottish Geographical Magazine'' 8 (1892), 289–301, 345–357.</ref> "African Pygmy" is used for disambiguation from "Asiatic Pygmy", a name applied to the [[Negrito]] populations of Southeast Asia.

Dembner (1996) reported a universal "disdain for the term 'pygmy{{'"}} among the Pygmy peoples of Central Africa: the term is considered a pejorative, and people prefer to be referred to by the name of their respective ethnic or tribal groups, such as [[Bayaka]], [[Mbuti]] and [[Twa peoples|Twa]].<ref name="focus">S. A. Dembner, [http://www.fao.org/docrep/w1033e/w1033e03.htm "Forest peoples in the central African rain forest: focus on the pygmies"] ''Unasylva — An international journal of forestry and forest industries'' Vol. 47 – 1996/3. "Pygmies are distributed discontinuously across nine different African countries Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Zaire, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Congo and live in innumerable distinct ethnic groups that are separated by geography, language, customs and technology. The one characteristic that is common to them all, regardless of their location or degree of acculturation, is their disdain for the term 'pygmy'. Without exception, they prefer to be called by their appropriate ethnic name, such as Mbuti, Efe, Aka, Asua, and consider the term 'pygmy' as pejorative."</ref> There is no clear replacement for the term "Pygmy" in reference to the umbrella group. A descriptive term that has seen some use since the 2000s is "Central African foragers".{{efn|name=euphemisms|"Central African foragers" is used (in some cases alongside "pygmies") in e.g.: Susan Kent, ''Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth-Century Foragers: An African Perspective'' (2006); Richard Bradshaw, Juan Fandos-Rius, ''Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic'' (2016), p. 11; Schlebusch et al. (2017). "[African] rainforest hunter-gatherers" is used in population genetics from c. 2015, {{cite journal |doi=10.1038/ncomms10047 |pmid=26616214 |pmc=4674682 |title=The epigenomic landscape of African rainforest hunter-gatherers and farmers |journal=Nature Communications |volume=6 |article-number=10047 |year=2015 |last1=Fagny |first1=Maud |last2=Patin |first2=Etienne |last3=MacIsaac |first3=Julia L |last4=Rotival |first4=Maxime |last5=Flutre |first5=Timothée |last6=Jones |first6=Meaghan J |last7=Siddle |first7=Katherine J |last8=Quach |first8=Hélène |last9=Harmant |first9=Christine |last10=McEwen |first10=Lisa M |last11=Froment |first11=Alain |last12=Heyer |first12=Evelyne |last13=Gessain |first13=Antoine |last14=Betsem |first14=Edouard |last15=Mouguiama-Daouda |first15=Patrick |last16=Hombert |first16=Jean-Marie |last17=Perry |first17=George H |last18=Barreiro |first18=Luis B |last19=Kobor |first19=Michael S |last20=Quintana-Murci |first20=Lluis |display-authors=6 |bibcode=2015NatCo...610047F }} The alternative "Forest People [of Central Africa]" sees limited use in the early 2000s, e.g., ''Racism Against Indigenous Peoples'', International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (2001), p. 312; Thomas Widlok, Wolde Gossa Tadesse (eds.), ''Property and Equality'' vol. 2 (2005), p. 104.}}

Regional names used collectively of the western group of Pygmies are ''[[Bambenga]]'' (the plural form of Mbenga), used in the [[Kongo language]], and ''[[Bayaka]]'' (the plural form of Aka/Yaka), used in the [[Central African Republic]].

==Groups== {{main|Classification of Pygmy languages}}

The Congo Pygmy speak languages of the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] and [[Central Sudanic languages|Central Sudanic]] language families. There has been significant intermixing between the [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] and Pygmies.

There are at least a dozen Pygmy groups, sometimes unrelated to each other. They are grouped in three geographical categories:<ref>"Mbuti, Twa, and Mbenga". In Stokes (ed.) 2009. ''Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East'', Volume 1</ref> *the western ''Bambenga'' (''Mbenga'') of [[Cameroon]] and [[Gabon]], the Bayaka ([[Aka people|Aka]] and [[Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon)|Baka]]), the ''Bakola'' or ''Bakoya'' ([[Gyele people|Gyele]] and [[Kola people|Kola]]), and the [[Babongo|Bongo]]; these groups are speakers of [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] and [[Ubangian languages]] *the ''[[Bambuti]]'' (''Mbuti'') of the [[Ituri Rainforest]], speakers of [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] and [[Central Sudanic languages]] *the widely scattered [[Batwa]]: **the [[Great Lakes Twa]] of the [[African Great Lakes|Great Lakes]], speakers of the Bantu [[Rundi language|Rundi]] and [[Kiga language|Kiga]] languages **the "Pygmoid" [[Southern Twa]], not always included in the term "Pygmy", as they tend to be somewhat taller (male average above 155 cm).{{efn|Hiernaux (1975) distinguished the Pygmies proper (Mbuti and Biaka), with an average male and female height of around 155 and 144 cm, from "Pygmoid" groups (Twa and neighbouring groups of Uganda, Rwuanda and South Congo) with a somewhat larger average height of 155 to 160 cm (cited after [[Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza|Cavalli-Sforza, L. Luca]]; Menozzi, Paolo; and Piazza Alberto (1994) ''The History and Geography of Human Genes'' Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, p. 168, Table "A Summary of Hiernaux's Classification (Hiernaux 1975) of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples").}} Subgroups include the [[Echuya Batwa|Echuya Twa]], [[Mongo Twa]], [[Lukanga Twa]] and [[Kafwe Twa]].

== Origins and history == African Pygmies are often assumed to be the direct descendants of the [[Middle Stone Age]] [[hunter-gatherer]] peoples of the central [[African rainforest]]. Genetic evidence for the deep separation of Congo Pygmies from the lineage of [[Congoid|West Africans]] and [[recent African origin|East Africans]], as well as [[archaic admixture|admixture]] from archaic humans, was found in the 2010s.<ref name="Lipson etal 2020">{{Cite journal|last1=Lipson|first1=Mark|last2=Ribot|first2=Isabelle|last3=Mallick|first3=Swapan|last4=Rohland|first4=Nadin|last5=Olalde|first5=Iñigo|last6=Adamski|first6=Nicole|last7=Broomandkhoshbacht|first7=Nasreen|last8=Lawson|first8=Ann Marie|last9=López|first9=Saioa|last10=Oppenheimer|first10=Jonas|last11=Stewardson|first11=Kristin|date=January 2020|title=Ancient West African foragers in the context of African population history|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-1929-1.epdf?referrer_access_token=Sv5T97VpZT8Bof_UnmrDHdRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MCUu5RcRm4n8PzkjDdW2JMOfq7vA7xSFftEkttydvrM5vgXGT719_dEXF6QQTKOG8PN8tN9Tx5qFP22jW1pSN7HePU0sSCCdWiS7B60HdgbKxaaUViR7KllWOzHCLEGpDzLY1oX6uASQ48RT1O5xXVcM42U-hybHxcoVZqmdzGdRULZdTxCmUQqjziHZFTnHaIXhcjDExYjoOarSo7TwogZWnQh-P7NW-zBWY5fr8nXJ0Jw4IQhNrX7B4hy8UJ_7Y=&tracking_referrer=www.sciencenews.org|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=577|issue=7792|pages=665–670|doi=10.1038/s41586-020-1929-1 |pmc=8386425|pmid=31969706|bibcode=2020Natur.577..665L|s2cid=210862788|issn=0028-0836}}</ref><ref name="genetics">{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2012.07.009 |pmid=22840920 |pmc=3426505 |title=Evolutionary History and Adaptation from High-Coverage Whole-Genome Sequences of Diverse African Hunter-Gatherers |journal=Cell |volume=150 |issue=3 |pages=457–469 |year=2012 |last1=Lachance |first1=Joseph |last2=Vernot |first2=Benjamin |last3=Elbers |first3=Clara C |last4=Ferwerda |first4=Bart |last5=Froment |first5=Alain |last6=Bodo |first6=Jean-Marie |last7=Lema |first7=Godfrey |last8=Fu |first8=Wenqing |last9=Nyambo |first9=Thomas B |last10=Rebbeck |first10=Timothy R |last11=Zhang |first11=Kun |last12=Akey |first12=Joshua M |last13=Tishkoff |first13=Sarah A |bibcode=2012Cell..150..457L}} {{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.aao6266 |pmid=28971970 |title=Southern African ancient genomes estimate modern human divergence to 350,000 to 260,000 years ago |journal=Science |volume=358 |issue=6363 |pages=652–655 |year=2017 |last1=Schlebusch |first1=Carina M |last2=Malmström |first2=Helena |last3=Günther |first3=Torsten |last4=Sjödin |first4=Per |last5=Coutinho |first5=Alexandra |last6=Edlund |first6=Hanna |last7=Munters |first7=Arielle R |last8=Vicente |first8=Mário |last9=Steyn |first9=Maryna |last10=Soodyall |first10=Himla |last11=Lombard |first11=Marlize |last12=Jakobsson |first12=Mattias |bibcode=2017Sci...358..652S |doi-access=free |biorxiv=10.1101/145409}} Older (pre-2010) studies with inconclusive results: R. Blench and M. Dendo. [http://www.rogerblench.info/Genetics/SAFA%202004%20genetics%20paper.pdf ''Genetics and linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa''], Cambridge-Bergen, 24 June 2004. {{cite book|author=Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca |title=African pygmies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQ8OAQAAMAAJ|year=1986|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-164480-2}} </ref> The lineage of African Pygmies is strongly associated with mitochondrial (maternal line) [[Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA)|haplogroup L1]], with a divergence time between 170,000 and 100,000 years ago.

They were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples of the [[Central Sudanic languages|Central Sudanic]] and [[Ubangian languages|Ubangian]] phyla beginning after about [[African humid period#End|5,500 years ago]],<ref>Igor Kopytoff, ''The African Frontier: The Reproduction of Traditional African Societies'' (1989), 9–10 (cited after [http://amightytree.org/niger-congo-languages-and-history/ Igbo Language Roots and (Pre)-History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717224506/http://amightytree.org/niger-congo-languages-and-history/ |date=2019-07-17}}, ''A Mighty Tree'', 2011).</ref> and, beginning about [[Bantu expansion|3,500 years ago]], by the [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]], adopting their languages.<ref>R. M. Blench, [http://www.rogerblench.info/Genetics/SAFA%202004%20genetics%20paper.pdf Genetics and linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa] (2004), "4.3 The origin of the African pygmies": "The common view, however, is that the pygmies are the ancient denizens of the forest zone, dating from at least the Middle Stone Age (MSA) (e.g., Cavalli-Sforza 1968a). They would have lived by hunting and gathering until they encountered expanding Central Sudanic, Adamawa-Ubangian and Bantu-speaking farmers ca. 4000 bp. Since that date they have lived in a symbiosis with the farmers, often as a despised and marginalised group. If this is the case, then major MSA archaeological sites in the area of the present-day rain-forest are presumed to be the traces of these ancient pygmy groups. There is no doubt the Central African rainforest has been occupied for a very long time (Clist 1995; Mercader and Marti 1999), but there is no direct evidence as to the racial or genetic affiliations of the populations whose stone tools have been recovered. These sites have problems of dating, but it is usually assumed that the sites, 'Sangoan' or 'Lupemban' are >40,000 years old (the usual limit of radio-carbon dating)."</ref>

===Linguistic substrate=== {{further|Classification of Pygmy languages}} Substantial non-[[Bantu languages|Bantu]] and non-[[Ubangian languages|Ubangian]] [[linguistic substrate|substrates]] have been identified in Aka and in Baka, respectively, on the order of 30% of the lexicon. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, deals with [[honey harvesting]], or is otherwise specialized for the forest and is shared between the two western Pygmy groups. This substrate has been suggested as representing a remnant of an ancient "western Pygmy" linguistic phylum, dubbed "Mbenga" or "Baaka". However, as substrate vocabulary has been widely borrowed between Pygmies and neighboring peoples, no reconstruction of such a "Baaka" language is possible for times more remote than a few centuries ago.<ref name="Bahuchet">Bahuchet, Serge (1993) "History of the inhabitants of the central African rain forest: perspectives from comparative linguistics." In C.M. Hladik, ed., ''Tropical forests, people, and food: Biocultural interactions and applications to development.'' Paris: Unesco/Parthenon. {{ISBN|1850703809}}</ref>

An ancestral Pygmy language has been postulated for at least some Pygmy groups, based on the observation of [[linguistic substrate]]s. According to [[Merritt Ruhlen]] (1994), "African Pygmies speak languages belonging to either the [[Nilo-Saharan]] or the [[Niger–Kordofanian]] family. It is assumed that Pygmies once spoke their own language(s), but that, through living in symbiosis with other Africans, in prehistorical times, they adopted languages belonging to these two families."<ref>Ruhlen, Merritt (1994) ''The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue''. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New York, p. 154, {{ISBN|0471584266}}.</ref>

[[Roger Blench]] (1997, 1999) criticized the hypothesis of an ancestral "Pygmy language", arguing that even if there is evidence for a common ancestral language rather than just borrowing, it will not be sufficient to establish a specifically "Pygmy" origin rather than any of the several potential [[language isolate]]s of (former) hunter-gatherer populations that ring the rainforest.<ref>Blench, Roger (1997) "The languages of Africa". In Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs (eds.), ''Archaeology and language IV'', Routledge, {{ISBN|1134816235}}</ref> He argued that the Pygmies do not form the residue of a single ancient stock of Central African hunter-gatherers, but that they are rather descended from several neighboring ethno-linguistic groups, independently adapting to forest subsistence strategies. Blench adduced the lack of clear linguistic and archaeological evidence for the antiquity of the African Pygmies, that the genetic evidence, at the time of his writing, was inconclusive, and that there is no evidence of the Pygmies having a hunting technology distinctive from that of their neighbors. He argued that the short stature of Pygmy populations can arise relatively quickly (in less than a few millennia) under strong selection pressures.<ref>Blench, Roger. 1999. [http://www.rogerblench.info/Anthropology/Africa/Pygmies%20an%20ethnographic%20fiction.pdf Are the African Pygmies an ethnographic fiction]? In: ''Central African hunter-gatherers in a multi-disciplinary perspective: challenging elusiveness''. K. Biesbrouck, S. Elders & G. Rossel eds. 41–60. Leiden: CNWS.</ref>

[[West African hunter-gatherers]] may have spoken a set of presently [[Extinct language|extinct]] Sub-Saharan [[List of extinct languages of Africa#Western Africa|West African languages]].<ref name="MacDonald">{{cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=Kevin |title=Korounkorokalé revisited: The Pays Mande and the West African microlithic technocomplex |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02968406 |journal=African Archaeological Review |year=1997 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=192–196 |doi=10.1007/BF02968406 |jstor=25130625 |s2cid=161691927|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Abd-El-Moniem">{{cite web |last1=Abd-El-Moniem |first1=Hamdi Abbas Ahmed |title=A New Recording Of Mauritanian Rock Art |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1444476/1/U591781.pdf |page=221 |s2cid=130112115}}</ref> In the northeastern region of [[Nigeria]], [[Jalaa]], a language isolate, may have been a descending language from the original set(s) of languages spoken by West African hunter-gatherers.<ref name="MacDonald II">{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Kevin C. |title=Archaeology and Language II: Archaeological Data and Linguistic Hypotheses |chapter=Archaeology, language and the peopling of West Africa: a consideration of the evidence |date=2003-09-02 |publisher=Routledge |location=London and New York |pages=39–40, 43–44, 48–49 |isbn=978-0-203-20291-3 |doi=10.4324/9780203202913-11 |s2cid=163304839 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48iKiprsRMwC&q=%22West+African+hunter-gatherers%22&pg=PA37}}</ref>

=== Genetics === Genetic studies have found evidence that African Pygmies are descended from the [[Middle Stone Age]] people of Central Africa, with a separation time from West and East Africans of the order [[Eemian|130,000 years]]. African Pygmies in the historical period have been significantly displaced by, and assimilated to, several waves of [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] and [[Nilo-Saharan]] speakers, of the [[Central Sudanic languages|Central Sudanic]], [[Ubangian languages|Ubangian]], and [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] phyla.<ref name="genetics"/>

Genetically, African pygmies have some key differences between them and [[Bantu peoples]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1002641 |pmid=22570615 |title=Patterns of Ancestry, Signatures of Natural Selection, and Genetic Association with Stature in Western African Pygmies |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=8 |issue=4 |article-number=e1002641 |year=2012 |last1=Jarvis |first1=Joseph P |last2=Scheinfeldt |first2=Laura B |last3=Soi |first3=Sameer |last4=Lambert |first4=Charla |last5=Omberg |first5=Larsson |last6=Ferwerda |first6=Bart |last7=Froment |first7=Alain |last8=Bodo |first8=Jean-Marie |last9=Beggs |first9=William |last10=Hoffman |first10=Gabriel |last11=Mezey |first11=Jason |last12=Tishkoff |first12=Sarah A |pmc=3343053 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0007888 |pmid=19924308 |title=Genetic Variation and Recent Positive Selection in Worldwide Human Populations: Evidence from Nearly 1 Million SNPs |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=4 |issue=11 |article-number=e7888 |year=2009 |last1=López Herráez |first1=David |last2=Bauchet |first2=Marc |last3=Tang |first3=Kun |last4=Theunert |first4=Christoph |last5=Pugach |first5=Irina |last6=Li |first6=Jing |last7=Nandineni |first7=Madhusudan R |last8=Gross |first8=Arnd |last9=Scholz |first9=Markus |last10=Stoneking |first10=Mark |pmc=2775638 |bibcode=2009PLoSO...4.7888L |doi-access=free }}</ref> African pygmies' [[uniparental marker]]s display the most ancient divergence from other human groups among anatomically modern humans, second only to those displayed among some [[Khoisan]] populations.<ref name="Tishkoff2009">{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.1172257 |pmid=19407144 |pmc=2947357 |title=The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans |journal=Science |volume=324 |issue=5930 |pages=1035–1044 |year=2009 |last1=Tishkoff |first1=S. A |last2=Reed |first2=F. A |last3=Friedlaender |first3=F. R |last4=Ehret |first4=C |last5=Ranciaro |first5=A |last6=Froment |first6=A |last7=Hirbo |first7=J. B |last8=Awomoyi |first8=A. A |last9=Bodo |first9=J.-M |last10=Doumbo |first10=O |last11=Ibrahim |first11=M |last12=Juma |first12=A. T |last13=Kotze |first13=M. J |last14=Lema |first14=G |last15=Moore |first15=J. H |last16=Mortensen |first16=H |last17=Nyambo |first17=T. B |last18=Omar |first18=S. A |last19=Powell |first19=K |last20=Pretorius |first20=G. S |last21=Smith |first21=M. W |last22=Thera |first22=M. A |last23=Wambebe |first23=C |last24=Weber |first24=J. L |last25=Williams |first25=S. M |bibcode=2009Sci...324.1035T }}</ref> Researchers identified an ancestral and autochthonous lineage of mtDNA shared by Pygmies and Bantus, suggesting that both populations were originally one, and that they started to diverge from common ancestors around 70,000 years ago. After a period of isolation, during which current phenotype differences between Pygmies and Bantu farmers accumulated, Pygmy women started marrying male Bantu farmers (but not the opposite). This trend started around 40,000 years ago, and continued until several thousand years ago. Subsequently, the Pygmy gene pool was not enriched by external gene influxes.<ref name="Quintana08"/><ref>S. Bahuchet/MNHN Common Origins of Pygmies and Bantus. http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1164.htm</ref>

Mitochondrial [[Haplogroup L1|haplogroup L1c]] is strongly associated with pygmies, especially with [[Mbenga people|Bambenga]] groups.<ref name="Quintana08">{{cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.0711467105 |pmid=18216239 |pmc=2234190 |title=Maternal traces of deep common ancestry and asymmetric gene flow between Pygmy hunter-gatherers and Bantu-speaking farmers |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=105 |issue=5 |pages=1596–1601 |year=2008 |last1=Quintana-Murci |first1=L |last2=Quach |first2=H |last3=Harmant |first3=C |last4=Luca |first4=F |last5=Massonnet |first5=B |last6=Patin |first6=E |last7=Sica |first7=L |last8=Mouguiama-Daouda |first8=P |last9=Comas |first9=D |last10=Tzur |first10=S |last11=Balanovsky |first11=O |last12=Kidd |first12=K. K |last13=Kidd |first13=J. R |last14=Van Der Veen |first14=L |last15=Hombert |first15=J.-M |last16=Gessain |first16=A |last17=Verdu |first17=P |last18=Froment |first18=A |last19=Bahuchet |first19=S |last20=Heyer |first20=E |last21=Dausset |first21=J |last22=Salas |first22=A |last23=Behar |first23=D. M |bibcode=2008PNAS..105.1596Q |doi-access=free }}</ref> L1c prevalence was variously reported as: 100% in [[Gyele language|Ba-Kola]], 97% in [[Aka people|Aka (Ba-Benzélé)]], and 77% in [[Aka people|Biaka]],<ref name="Tishkoff">Sarah A. Tishkoff et al. 2007, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080517050807/http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/10/2180 History of Click-Speaking Populations of Africa Inferred from mtDNA and Y Chromosome Genetic Variation.] Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24(10):2180–2195</ref> 100% of the [[Bedzan people|Bedzan (Tikar)]], 97% and 100% in the [[Baka (Cameroon and Gabon)|Baka people]] of [[Gabon]] and [[Cameroon]], respectively,<ref>Lluis Quintana-Murci et al. MtDNA diversity in Central Africa: from hunter-gathering to agriculturalism. CNRS-Institut Pasteur, Paris</ref> 97% in [[Bakoya]] (97%), and 82% in [[Bongo people (Gabon)|Ba-Bongo]].<ref name="Quintana08" /> Mitochondrial haplogroups [[Haplogroup L2|L2a]] and [[Haplogroup L0|L0a]] are prevalent among the [[Bambuti]].<ref name="Quintana08"/><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/srep12526 |pmid=26211407 |pmc=4515592 |title=60,000 years of interactions between Central and Eastern Africa documented by major African mitochondrial haplogroup L2 |journal=[[Scientific Reports]] |volume=5 |article-number=12526 |year=2015 |last1=Silva |first1=Marina |last2=Alshamali |first2=Farida |last3=Silva |first3=Paula |last4=Carrilho |first4=Carla |last5=Mandlate |first5=Flávio |last6=Jesus Trovoada |first6=Maria |last7=Černý |first7=Viktor |last8=Pereira |first8=Luísa |last9=Soares |first9=Pedro |bibcode=2015NatSR...512526S }}</ref>

Patin, et al. (2009) suggest two unique, late [[Pleistocene]] (before 60,000 years ago) divergences from other human populations, and a split between eastern and western pygmy groups about 20,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1000448 |pmid=19360089 |pmc=2661362 |quote=little is known about the chronology of the demographic events—size changes, population splits, and gene flow—ultimately giving rise to contemporary Pygmy (Western and Eastern) groups and neighboring agricultural populations. We studied the branching history of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and agricultural populations from Africa and estimated separation times and gene flow between these populations. The model identified included the early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and farming populations ~60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies' ancestors into the Western and Eastern Pygmy groups ~20,000 years ago. Our findings increase knowledge of the history of the peopling of the African continent in a region lacking archaeological data. |title=Inferring the Demographic History of African Farmers and Pygmy Hunter–Gatherers Using a Multilocus Resequencing Data Set |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=5 |issue=4 |article-number=e1000448 |year=2009 |last1=Patin |first1=Etienne |last2=Laval |first2=Guillaume |last3=Barreiro |first3=Luis B |last4=Salas |first4=Antonio |last5=Semino |first5=Ornella |last6=Santachiara-Benerecetti |first6=Silvana |last7=Kidd |first7=Kenneth K |last8=Kidd |first8=Judith R |last9=Van Der Veen |first9=Lolke |last10=Hombert |first10=Jean-Marie |last11=Gessain |first11=Antoine |last12=Froment |first12=Alain |last13=Bahuchet |first13=Serge |last14=Heyer |first14=Evelyne |last15=Quintana-Murci |first15=Lluís |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==== Ancient DNA ==== Ancient DNA was able to be obtained from two [[Shum Laka]] foragers from the early period of the Stone to Metal Age, in 8000 BP, and two Shum Laka foragers from the late period of the Stone to Metal Age, in 3000 BP.<ref name="Lipson">{{cite journal |last1=Lipson |first1=Mark |display-authors=etal |title=Ancient West African foragers in the context of African population history |journal=Nature |year=2020 |volume=577 |issue=7792 |pages=665–669 |publisher=Nature Research |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-1929-1 |pmid=31969706 |pmc=8386425 |bibcode=2020Natur.577..665L |s2cid=210862788}}</ref>

The mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome haplogroups found in the ancient Shum Laka foragers were Sub-Saharan African haplogroups.<ref name="Lipson" /> Two earlier Shum Laka foragers were of [[Haplogroup L0#Distribution|haplogroup L0a2a1]] – broadly distributed throughout modern African populations – and two later Shum Laka foragers were of [[Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA)#L1c|haplogroup L1c2a1b]] – distributed among both modern West and Central African agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers.<ref name="Lipson" /> One earlier Shum Laka forager was of haplogroup B and one later Shum Laka forager haplogroup B2b, which, together, as [[Haplogroup B (Y-DNA)|macrohaplogroup B]], is distributed among modern Central African hunter-gatherers (e.g., [[Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon)|Baka]], [[Bakola]], [[Aka people|Biaka]], [[Bedzan people|Bedzan]]).<ref name="Lipson" />

The autosomal admixture of the four ancient Shum Laka forager children was ~35% Western [[Central African hunter-gatherer]] and ~65% [[Basal West African]] – or, an admixture composed of a modern western Central African hunter-gatherer unit, a modern [[West Africa]]n unit, existing locally before 8000 BP, and a modern [[East Africa]]n/West African unit likely from further north in the regions of the [[Sahel]] and [[Sahara]].<ref name="Lipson" />

The two earlier Shum Laka foragers from 8000 BP and two later Shum Laka foragers from 3000 BP show 5000 years of population continuity in region.<ref name="Lipson" /> Yet, modern peoples of Cameroon are more closely related to modern West Africans than to the ancient Shum Laka foragers.<ref name="Lipson" /> Modern Cameroonian hunter-gatherers, while partly descended, are not largely descended from the Shum Laka foragers, due to the apparent absence of descent from Basal West Africans.<ref name="Lipson" />

The [[Bantu expansion]] is hypothesized to have originated in a homeland of Bantu-speaking peoples located around western Cameroon, a part of which Shum Laka is viewed as being of importance in the early period of this expansion.<ref name="Lipson" /> By 3000 BP, the Bantu expansion is hypothesized to have already begun.<ref name="Lipson" /> Yet, the sampled ancient Shum Laka foragers – two from 8000 BP and two from 3000 BP – show that most modern [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] speakers are greatly distinct from the ancient Shum Laka foragers, thus, showing that the ancient Shum Laka people were not the ancestral source population of the modern [[Bantu peoples|Bantu-speaking peoples]].<ref name="Lipson" />

While [[Southern African hunter-gatherers]] are generally recognized as being the earliest divergent modern human group, having diverged from other groups around 250,000–200,000 BP, as a result of the sampling of the ancient Shum Laka foragers, [[Central African hunter-gatherers]] are shown to have likely diverged at a similar time, if not even earlier.<ref name="Lipson" />

== Short stature == {{further|Pygmyism}} [[File:Comparrison and differances of size and hight between the Wellcome L0034845.jpg|thumb|Size comparison between Pygmies, English officers, Sudanese and Zanzibaris (1890)]] Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain the short stature of African pygmies. Becker, et al.,<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/ajpa.21512|title=Indirect evidence for the genetic determination of short stature in African Pygmies|year=2011|last1=Becker|first1=Noémie S.A.|last2=Verdu|first2=Paul|last3=Froment|first3=Alain|last4=Le Bomin|first4=Sylvie|last5=Pagezy|first5=Hélène|last6=Bahuchet|first6=Serge|last7=Heyer|first7=Evelyne|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=145|issue=3|pages=390–401|pmid=21541921|bibcode=2011AJPA..145..390B |hdl=2027.42/86961|url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86961/1/21512_ftp.pdf|hdl-access=free}}</ref> suggest African pygmyism may have evolved as an adaptation to the significantly lower average levels of [[ultraviolet]] light available beneath the canopy of [[rainforest]] environments.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ultraviolet light levels available in the rainforest |url=https://julianodea.blogspot.com/2009/12/ultraviolet-light-levels-in-rainforest.html |author= O'Dea, Julian |date=2009-12-21}}</ref> In similar hypothetical scenarios, because of reduced access to sunlight, a comparatively smaller amount of anatomically formulated [[vitamin D|vitamin D]] is produced, resulting in restricted dietary [[Calcium in biology|calcium]] uptake, and subsequently restricted bone growth and maintenance, resulting in an overall population average skeletal mass near the lowest periphery of the spectrum among anatomically modern humans.<ref name="O'Dea">{{cite journal |author=O'Dea, JD |title=Possible contribution of low ultraviolet light under the rainforest canopy to the small stature of Pygmies and Negritos |journal=Homo: Journal of Comparative Human Biology |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=284–7 |year=1994}}</ref>

Other proposed explanations include the potentially lesser availability of protein-rich food sources in rainforest environments, the often reduced soil-calcium levels in rainforest environments, the caloric expenditure required to traverse rainforest terrain, [[insular dwarfism]] as an adaptation to [[Equatorial region|equatorial]] and [[tropical]] heat and humidity, and pygmyism as an adaptation associated with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yong |first=Ed |date=19 December 2007 |title=Short lives, short size – why are pygmies small? |url=https://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/short-lives-short-size-why-are-pygmies-small/ |website=Not Exactly Rocket Science}}</ref>

Additional evidence suggests that, when compared to other [[Sub-Saharan Africa]]n populations, African pygmy populations display unusually low levels of expression of the genes encoding for human [[growth hormone]] and [[Growth hormone receptor|its receptor]] associated with low [[Serum (blood)|serum]] levels of [[insulin-like growth factor 1]] and short stature.<ref name="Bozzola, 2009">{{cite journal | title = The shortness of Pygmies is associated with severe under-expression of the growth hormone receptor | journal = Mol Genet Metab | date = November 2009 | first = M | last = Bozzola |author2=Travaglino P |author3=Marziliano N |author4=Meazza C |author5=Pagani S |author6=Grasso M |author7=Tauber M |author8=Diegoli M |author9=Pilotto A |author10=Disabella E |author11=Tarantino P |author12=Brega A |author13=Arbustini E | volume = 98 | issue = 3 | pages = 310–3 | pmid=19541519 | doi=10.1016/j.ymgme.2009.05.009}}</ref>

A study by Price, et al., provides insight into the role genetics plays in the reduced stature of African pygmies:

{{Blockquote|[W]e found strong signals for selection in both African Pygmy groups at two genes involved in the iodide-dependent thyroid hormone pathway: TRIP4 in Mbuti Pygmies; and IYD in Biaka Pygmies. [...] These observations suggest that the Efe have adapted genetically to an iodine-deficient diet; we suggest that the signals of recent positive selection that we observe at TRIP4 in Mbuti Pygmies and IYD in Biaka Pygmies may reflect such genetic adaptations to an iodine-deficient diet. Furthermore, alterations in the thyroid hormone pathway can cause short stature. We therefore suggest that short stature in these Pygmy groups may have arisen as a consequence of genetic alterations in the thyroid hormone pathway. [...] [T]his would suggest that short stature [...] arose as an indirect consequence of selection in response to an iodine-deficient diet. Second, since different genes in the thyroid hormone pathway show signals of selection in Mbuti vs. Biaka Pygmies, this would suggest that short stature arose independently in the ancestors of Mbuti and Biaka Pygmies, and not in a common ancestral population. Moreover, most Pygmy-like groups around the world dwell in tropical forests, and hence are likely to have iodine-deficient diets. The possibility that independent adaptations to an iodine-deficient diet might therefore have contributed to the convergent evolution of the short stature phenotype in Pygmy-like groups around the world deserves further investigation.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Price AL, Tandon A, Patterson N, Barnes KC, Rafaels N, Ruczinski I, Beaty TH, Mathias R, Reich D, Myers S | title = Sensitive Detection of Chromosomal Segments of Distinct Ancestry in Admixed Populations | doi = 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000519 | journal = PLOS Genetics | volume = 5 | issue = 6 | article-number = e1000519 | year = 2009 | pmid = 19543370 | pmc = 2689842 | doi-access = free }}</ref>}}

== Music == {{Main|Pygmy music}}

[[File:Africa Speaks! (1930) - Pygmy Drummers.jpg|thumb|right|Pygmy drummers (1930)]] The African Pygmies are particularly known for their vocal music, usually characterized by dense contrapuntal improvisation. [[Simha Arom]] says that the level of polyphonic complexity of Pygmy music was reached in Europe in the 14th century, yet Pygmy culture is unwritten and ancient, some Pygmy groups being the first known cultures in some areas of Africa.<ref>''African Rhythms'' (2003). Music by [[Aka (Pygmy tribe)|Aka]] Pygmies, performed by Aka Pygmies, [[György Ligeti]] and [[Steve Reich]], performed by [[Pierre-Laurent Aimard]]. Teldec Classics: 8573 86584-2. Liner notes by Aimard, Ligeti, Reich, and Simha Arom and Stefan Schomann.</ref>

Music permeates daily life, with songs for entertainment, special events, and communal activities. The Pygmy people are known to use an instrument called the n'dehou, which is a bamboo flute. The n'dehou only produces a single sound; however, the person using this instrument would wield their breath and inhale making high-pitched sounds; this allows the individual to make [[polyrhythm]]ic music using a one-note instrument. Along with the different sounds of the breath and the n'dehou, the musician may also stomp their feet or tap on their chest to add even more dimension and complexity to the music. The n'dehou was popularized by [[Francis Bebey]], a Cameroonian musical artist.

Polyphonic music is found among the Aka–Baka and the Mbuti, but not among the Gyele (Kola) or the various groups of Twa.

== Contemporary issues in society ==

===Enslavement, cannibalism, and genocide=== {{further|Effacer le tableau|Slavery in Africa|Cannibalism in Africa}} In the [[Republic of Congo]], where Pygmies are estimated to make up 1.2–10% of the population,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Republic of Congo|url=https://minorityrights.org/country/republic-of-congo/|access-date=2021-03-03|website=Minority Rights Group|date=19 June 2015 |language=en-GB}}</ref> many Pygmies live as [[slaves]] to [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] masters. The nation is deeply stratified between these two major ethnic groups. The Pygmy slaves belong from birth to their Bantu masters in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition. Even though the Pygmies are responsible for much of the hunting, fishing and manual labor in jungle villages, Pygmies and Bantus alike say Pygmies are often paid at the master's whim: in cigarettes, used clothing, or even nothing at all.<ref name="slavery">{{Cite news |url=http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/552528.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228160138/http://newsobserver.com/110/story/552528.html |archive-date=2009-02-28 |title=Congo's Pygmies live as slaves |work=The News & Observer |first=Katie |last=Thomas |date=2007-03-12}} {{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/16/world/as-the-world-intrudes-pygmies-feel-endangered.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=As the World Intrudes, Pygmies Feel Endangered |author=Kristof, Nicholas D. |date=1997-06-16 |work=New York Times}}</ref> In 2022, after decades of facing these conditions and working to get legal protections for the Pygmies, a group of 45 indigenous organizations successfully petitioned the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] (DRC) government, and the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Indigenous Pygmy Peoples, the first legislation in the country that recognizes and safeguards the specific rights of the Indigenous pygmy peoples, was signed into law.<ref name="pygmy_rights"> {{Cite news |url=https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/after-14-years-of-advocacy-the-drc-president-signs-new-indigenous-peoples-law-commentary/ |title=After 14 years of advocacy, the DRC president finally signs new Indigenous peoples law (commentary) |author=Patrick Saidi Hemedi |date=2022-11-16 |work=Mongabay}}</ref>

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the [[Ituri Conflict]], Ugandan backed rebel groups were accused by the UN of [[Slavery in Africa|enslaving]] Mbutis to prospect for minerals and forage for forest food, with those returning empty handed being killed and [[human cannibalism|eaten]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/09/congo.jamesastill|title=Congo rebels are eating pygmies, UN says|author=James Astill|work=The Guardian|date=8 January 2003}}</ref>

In 2003, Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, told the UN's Indigenous People's Forum that during the [[Second Congo War|Congo Civil War]], his people were hunted down and eaten as though they were game animals. In neighboring [[North Kivu]] province there has been [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] by a [[death squad]] known as ''[[Effacer le tableau|Les Effaceurs]]'' ("the erasers") who wanted to clear the land of people to open it up for mineral exploitation.<ref name="Timesonline">{{Cite news |author= Clayton, Jonathan |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article402970.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100525095020/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article402970.ece |archive-date=2010-05-25 |title=Pygmies struggle to survive in war zone where abuse is routine |work=The Times |date=2004-12-16}}</ref> Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman", and some say their flesh can confer [[Magic (paranormal)|magical]] powers.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm |title=DR Congo Pygmies 'exterminated' |work=BBC News |date=2004-07-06}}</ref>

Makelo asked the [[UN Security Council]] to recognize cannibalism as a [[crimes against humanity|crime against humanity]] and an act of [[Genocides in history|genocide]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm |title=DR Congo Pygmies appeal to UN |work=BBC News |date=23 May 2003}}</ref> According to [[Minority Rights Group International]] there is extensive evidence of mass killings, cannibalism and rape of Pygmies, and they have urged the [[International Criminal Court]] to investigate a campaign of extermination against pygmies. Although they have been targeted by virtually all the armed groups, much of the violence against Pygmies is attributed to the rebel group the [[Movement for the Liberation of Congo]], which is part of the transitional government and still controls much of the north, as well as their allies.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-eating-pygmies-as-mass-slaughter-continues-in-congo-despite-peace-agreement-601088.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422185032/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-eating-pygmies-as-mass-slaughter-continues-in-congo-despite-peace-agreement-601088.html |archive-date=2008-04-22|title=Rebels 'eating Pygmies' as mass slaughter continues in Congo despite peace agreement |author=Peta, Basildon |work=The Independent |date=2003-01-09}}</ref>

Starting in 2013, the [[Pygmy]] [[Twa#Congo|Batwa people]], whom the [[Luba people]] often exploit and allegedly [[Pygmy peoples#slavery|enslave]],<ref name="HRW 2015-08-11"/> rose up into militias (such as the "Perci" militia) in Northern [[Katanga Province]] and attacked Luba villages.<ref name="NYTimes 2016-05-01">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/africa/in-congo-wars-are-small-and-chaos-is-endless.html?_r=0|title=In Congo, Wars Are Small and Chaos Is Endless|newspaper=nytimes.com|access-date=7 March 2017|date=30 April 2016}}</ref> A Luba militia known as "Elements" attacked back, notably killing at least 30 people in the "Vumilia 1" displaced people camp in April 2015. Since the start of the conflict, hundreds have been killed, and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes.<ref name="HRW 2015-08-11">{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/11/dr-congo-ethnic-militias-attack-civilians-katanga|title=DR Congo: Ethnic Militias Attack Civilians in Katanga|publisher=Human Rights Watch|date=11 August 2015|access-date=7 March 2017}}</ref> The weapons used in the conflict are often arrows and axes, rather than guns.<ref name="NYTimes 2016-05-01" />

[[Ota Benga]] was a teenage pygmy boy from the Congo. Ota was purchased from slave traders and was brought to the United States to be exhibited for his unique looks. Ota had sharpened teeth as a result of the traditions of his tribe, and he was also short in stature. In 1906, Ota was brought to the Bronx Zoo and exhibited in the monkey house.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2020-08-26 |title=Caged Congolese teen: Why a zoo took 114 years to apologise |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53917733 |access-date=2022-11-30}}</ref> Ota was given a bow and arrow for protection from the animals. After the exhibit was closed and World War I broke out, Ota was not able to return home to the Congo. He lived out the rest of his life in Virginia, until he became depressed and died by suicide at the age of 33.

=== Systematic discrimination === Historically, the Pygmy have always been viewed as inferior by both the village dwelling Bantu tribes and colonial authorities.<ref name="Sheshadri, Raja 2005">{{cite journal|author=Sheshadri, Raja|url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm|title=Pygmies in the Congo Basin and Conflict|volume=163|year=2005|journal=ICE Case Studies|access-date=2012-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025741/http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm|archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref> This has translated into systematic discrimination. One early example was the capture of Pygmy children under the auspices of the Belgian colonial authorities, who exported Pygmy children to zoos throughout Europe, including the World's Fair in the United States in 1907.<ref name="Sheshadri, Raja 2005"/>

Pygmies are often evicted from their land and given the lowest paying jobs. At a state level, Pygmies are not considered citizens by most African states, and are refused identity cards, deeds to land, health care and education access.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

[[File:Living on the rainforest 2.jpg|thumb|[[Aka people|Aka Pygmies]] living in the [[Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve]] in Central African Republic]] There are roughly 500,000 Pygmies remaining in the rainforest of Central Africa.<ref name="Sheshadri, Raja 2005"/> This population is rapidly decreasing as poverty, intermarriage with Bantu peoples, Westernization, and deforestation gradually destroy their way of life and culture.

The greatest environmental problem the Pygmies face is the loss of their traditional homeland, the tropical forests of Central Africa. In countries such as Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo this is due to deforestation and the desire of several governments in Central Africa to evict the Pygmies from their forest habitat in order to profit from the sale of hardwood and the resettlement of farmers onto the cleared land. In some cases, as in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this conflict is violent. Certain groups, such as the Hutus of the Interahamwe, wish to eliminate the Pygmy and take the resources of the forest as a military conquest, using the resources of the forest for military as well as economic advancement.<ref name="Sheshadri, Raja 2005"/> Since the Pygmies rely on the forest for their physical as well as cultural survival, as these forests disappear, so do the Pygmy.

Along with Raja Sheshadri, the [[Friends of Peoples Close to Nature|fPcN-Global.org]] website conducted research on the Pygmies. The human rights organization states that, as the forest has receded under logging activities, its original inhabitants have been pushed into populated areas to join the formal economy, working as casual laborers or on commercial farms and being exposed to new diseases.<ref name="fpcn-global.org">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080516034223/http://www.fpcn-global.org/node/227 Deforestation in central Africa brings HIV/AIDS to indigenous communities, mainly women]. fpcn-global.org. 6 April 2008.</ref> This shift has brought them into closer contact with neighboring ethnic communities whose [[HIV]] levels are generally higher. This has led to the spread of HIV into the pygmy group.

Since poverty has become very prevalent in Pygmy communities, sexual exploitation of indigenous women has become a common practice. Commercial sex has been bolstered by logging, which often places large groups of male laborers in camps which are set up in close contact with the Pygmy communities.

Human rights groups have also reported widespread sexual abuse of indigenous women in the conflict-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite these risks, Pygmy populations generally have poor access to health services and information about HIV. One British medical journal, ''The Lancet'', published a review showing that Pygmy populations often had less access to health care than neighboring communities.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ohenjo | first1 = N. O. | last2 = Willis | first2 = R. | last3 = Jackson | first3 = D. | last4 = Nettleton | first4 = C. | last5 = Good | first5 = K. | last6 = Mugarura | first6 = B. | doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68849-1 | title = Health of Indigenous people in Africa | journal = The Lancet | volume = 367 | issue = 9526 | pages = 1937–46 | year = 2006 | pmid = 16765763| s2cid = 7976349 }}</ref> According to the report, even where health care facilities exist, many Pygmies do not use them because they cannot pay for consultations and medicines, they do not have the documents and identity cards needed to travel or obtain hospital treatment, and they are subjected to humiliating and discriminatory treatment.<ref name="fpcn-global.org"/>

Studies in Cameroon and the DRC in the 1980s and 1990s showed a lower prevalence of HIV in Pygmy populations than among neighboring groups, but recent increases have been recorded. One study found that the HIV prevalence among the Baka Pygmies in eastern Cameroon rose from 0.7 percent in 1993 to 4 percent in 2003.<ref name="fpcn-global.org"/>

=== Deforestation === A consortium of researchers conducted a case study on the Pygmies of Africa and concluded that [[deforestation]] has greatly affected their everyday lives.<ref>{{cite news |last=Donald G. McNeil Jr. |date=25 January 2016 |title=Deforestation Threatens Pygmies, Study Finds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/health/deforestation-threatens-pygmies-study-finds.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref> Pygmy culture is threatened today by the forces of political and economic change.<ref>{{cite news |title=As Cameroon's jungle shrinks, pygmies' lifestyle is under threat |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20170713-focus-cameroon-baka-pygmies-deforestation-jungle-alcoholism-indigenous-culture |work=France 24 |date=13 July 2017}}</ref>

==See also== * {{annotated link|Bwiti}} * {{annotated link|Ethnic groups of Africa}} * {{annotated link|Khoisan}} * {{annotated link|Mbuti}} * {{annotated link|Peopling of Africa}}

==Notes== {{Notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110714070834/http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55341 Kiss of Life for DR Congo Pygmies by Badylon Kawanda Bakiman] *[http://www.pygmies.org/ African Pygmies: Hunter-Gatherer Peoples of Central Africa] *[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-pygmies-plight-93401092/ The Pygmies' Plight] Smithsonian Magazine, December 2008 by Paul Raffaele *[http://www.survival-international.org/tribes.php?tribe_id=35 Survival International: Pygmies] *[http://www.pygmysurvival.org/ Pygmy Survival Alliance] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160305231312/http://www.wimp.com/bridgebuilding/ Undated footage of Pygmy tribe constructing a vine bridge]

[[Category:African Pygmies| ]]